Modern Art Movements to the Present
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24 Modern Art Movements to the Present ave you ever been to a modern art museum? Did the artworks look H similar to one another? Have you ever heard of or seen the works of Salvador Dalí or Frank Lloyd Wright? Diversity is the word that best describes the art of the modern era. Today’s artists make even greater use of new techniques and materials to express their ideas, beliefs, and feelings. Art movements of the past have given way to an astonishing array of individual art styles. Read to Find Out As you read this chapter, find out about North American and European art after World War II. Learn about Surrealism, Regionalism, and Abstract Impressionism. Read further to find out about new forms of sculpture, architecture, painting, and digital art forms. Focus Activity Look at the work in Figure 24.1. Divide a piece of paper into two parts. In part one, record your contemporary perspective of the work. In the other part, record how you think a Renaissance artist or a nineteenth-century artist might react to this work. What would you say to the earlier artist to defend the painting? Does the style represented by this work look like any style you have studied in earlier chapters? Examine and respond to each of the artworks in this chapter. Using the Time Line The Time Line introduces you to some of the events of the modern era and the many diverse artworks that you will study in this chapter. How do you think Michelangelo or Cézanne would respond to these works? 1924–25 1932 1942 Joan Miró’s Georgia O’Keeffe Jacob Lawrence painting Carnival draws inspiration portrays the struggles 1914–18 of Harlequin from nature 1939 –1945 of African Americans World War I (credit, p. 547) (credit, p. 551) World War II (Detail. Credit, p. 551) 1900 1920 1930 1940 1915–22 c. 1920 c. 1930 c. 1945 Dada Movement Surrealism Regionalism Abstract Expressionism 544 ■ FIGURE 24.1 Elizabeth Murray. Just in Time. 1981. Oil on canvas. 269 ϫ 500 cm (106 ϫ 97Љ). Philadelphia Museum of Art. Purchased with the Edward and Althea Budd Fund, the Adele Haas Turner and Beatrice Pastorius Turner Memorial Fund. 1958 1968 1978 1981 Louise Nevelson Frank Stella paints Allan Houser’s sculptures Elizabeth creates Sky Lac Laronge IV in the are inspired by his Native Murray paints Cathedral new Hard-Edge style American heritage Just in Time (credit p. 564) (credit p. 556) (Detail. Credit p. 565) Refer to the Time Line on page H11 in your Art Handbook for more 1950 1960 1970 1980 2000 about this period. c. 1950s c. 1960s c. 1970s c. 1980s 1990 Pop Art Op Art Photo-Realism Post Modernism Digital Art 545 LESSON ONE Revolutions in European and American Art Vocabulary he years following World War I in Europe were marked by revolution ■ Dada ■ Pop art T and inflation, anxiety and unrest. Many people realized that the ■ Surrealism ■ Op art “war to end all wars” was not going to bring about peace and prosperity ■ Regionalism ■ Hard-Edge for long. It was a time of disillusionment, and this was apparent in much ■ Abstract ■ Photo-Realism of the art that was produced. Expressionism Artists to Meet Painting in Europe: Dada, ■ Marcel Duchamp ■ Joan Miró Surrealism, and Fantasy ■ Salvador Dalí One group of artists expressed their disillusionment through their art. ■ Paul Klee ■ Grant Wood Known as Dada, the movement ridiculed contemporary culture and tradi- ■ Edward Hopper tional art forms. The movement is said to have received its name when ■ Stuart Davis one of its members opened a dictionary at random and stuck a pin into ■ Georgia O’Keeffe the word dada. The word, which sounded like baby talk, made no sense ■ Jacob Lawrence at all. Because the members of the movement believed that European cul- ■ Willem de Kooning ture had lost all meaning and purpose, this word seemed appropriate. ■ Jackson Pollock ■ Helen Frankenthaler ■ Robert Motherwell ■ Frank Stella Marcel Duchamp ■ Alfred Leslie (1887–1968) ■ Audrey Flack ■ Andrew Wyeth Dada artists such as ■ Emily Carr Marcel Duchamp (mahr-sell ■ David Hockney doo-shahn) exhibited the ■ Elizabeth Murray most ordinary and absurd ■ Judy Pfaff objects as works of art. These objects included a bottle rack Discover and a bicycle wheel mounted After completing this lesson, on a stool (Figure 24.2). you will be able to: ■ Explain what is meant by Dada, Perhaps no work sums up the Surrealism, and fantasy in art. Dada point of view as well as ■ Define Regionalism and point Duchamp’s photograph of out the features that made it a Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona uniquely American art style. Lisa—with a carefully drawn ■ Identify the most important mustache. With works like characteristics of Pop art, Op art, Hard-Edge painting, this, the Dada artists sought and Photo-Realism. ■ FIGURE 24.2 This is the first kinetic, or mov- to ridicule the art of the past. ing, sculpture in the history of Western art. The Dada movement ended in 1922. It set the Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel. New York (1951. Third ver- sion, after lost original of 1913). Assemblage, metal wheel, stage, however, for later 63.8 cm (251⁄2Љ) diameter, painted wood stool, 60.2 cm (23 3⁄4Љ) artists who were attracted to 1 Љ high; overall 128.3 cm (50 ⁄2 ) high. Collection, The Museum of the idea of creating art that Modern Art, New York. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. © 2004 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / was whimsical, humorous, Succession Marcel Duchamp. and fantastic. 546 Joan Miró (1893–1983) Joan Miró (zhoo-an mee-roh) was a forget- ful, modest little man who looked as if he should be working in a bank rather than in a painting studio. In 1925, Miró startled the Paris art world with a painting called Carnival of Harlequin (Figure 24.3). This work helped make the Spanish artist a major figure in twentieth-century art. The painting was among the first to introduce a new style of art called Surrealism, in which dreams, fantasy, and the subconscious served as inspiration for artists. The Surrealists were a group of artists who ■ FIGURE 24.3 This was among the first works to be rejected control, composition, and logic. They called Surrealist. Identify specific Surrealistic characteristics chose to paint the world of dreams and the in the painting. subconscious. The world of dreams had Joan Miró. Carnival of Harlequin. 1924–25. Oil on canvas. Approx. 66 ϫ ϫ 5 Љ been explored before by Hieronymus Bosch, 92.7 cm (26 36 ⁄8 ). Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Room Francisco Goya, and others. In even the most of Contemporary Art Fund, 1940. © 2004 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. fantastic of their works, however, the subjects could be recognized. This is not true of Miró’s paintings. Miró experienced many hardships in his life, and these led to the visions that inspired paintings like Carnival of Harlequin. When he arrived in Paris in 1919, poverty forced him to live on one meal a week, chewing gum to deaden his appetite and eating dried figs for energy. Then, when he began painting, forms came to him as if seen in a vision. Sometimes an accidental brush mark suggested the beginnings of a picture. This period of unconscious experiment was care- fully limited. Then Miró worked on each detail in the painting. The result of this effort was a carefully controlled design. ■ FIGURE 24.4 Slightly larger than a standard sheet of typing paper, Dali’s painting manages to look larger than life. Can you find the artist’s self-portrait in this picture? Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Miró’s countryman Salvador Dalí (dah-lee) Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. (Persistance de la memoire). 1931. Oil on canvas. Approx. 24 ϫ 33 cm (9 1⁄2 ϫ 13Љ). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York. Given joined the Surrealist movement late and used anonymously. © 2004 Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation / Artists Rights Society his skills as a master showman to become (ARS), New York. its most famous member. In The Persistence of Memory (Figure 24.4), he created an eerie world in which death and decay are Dalí’s Use of Symbolism symbolized by a dead tree and a strange sea The meaning of this unusual picture seems monster decomposing on a deserted beach. clear: In time, everything will die and decay Ants swarm over a watch in an unsuccessful except time itself. Time alone is indestruc- attempt to eat it. tible. The limp watches indicate that someone Chapter 24 Modern Art Movements to the Present 547 has the power to twist time as he or she sees hours studying shells, coral, butterfly wings, fit. That person is the artist who painted them stained glass, and mosaics. His reactions in this way. Dalí tells you that the artist alone, to the world resulted in pictures that freed through his or her works, is able to conquer viewers from traditional ways of looking at time and achieve immortality. things or caused them to smile with delight The meanings in Dalí’s other works are not and amusement. always as clear. In some, the symbolism is lost to everyone but the artist. Furthermore, his Fish Magic images are frequently so bizarre and grotesque ■ FIGURE 24.5 that some people have called them the products In 1902, while in Italy, Klee visited the of a madman. Dalí, enjoying the controversy aquarium in Naples. For hours he stood with caused by his works and his unusual behavior, his nose almost pressed against the glass, responded by saying, “The difference between a watching the fish in the huge tanks dart, turn, madman and myself is that I am not mad.” and glide gracefully by.